The study of the Armenian genocide often remains confined to restricted circlesof specialists and interdisciplinarity is rarely promoted. And, despite the valuing ofcomparative research, it is frequently reduced to the juxtaposition of case studies. Researchon the Armenian genocide is now ready to address more cross-cutting issues and broaderdiscussions on mass violence.This conference asks: how can the social sciences, memory studies, and genocide studiescontribute to a broader understanding of the Armenian genocide and its aftermath? Andreciprocally: what is the contribution of research on the Armenian genocide to ourunderstanding of mass crimes and to the social sciences?

Conference organized by The George and Irina Schaeffer Center
for the Study of Genocide, Human Rights and Conflict Prevention,
The American University of Paris and the AGBU Nubar Library

Incription obligatoire avant le 27 juin à 12h CET sur le site internet du colloque: https://www.aup.edu/news-events/event/2025-06-30/armenian-genocide-new-interpretations-and-cross-disciplinary

Schedule

June 30

Welcome and registration 9h30-10h00
Introduction 10h00-10h15

10h15-11h15 Keynote Lecture

Raymond Kévorkian Université Paris 8 | “Researching the Armenian
Genocide from the 1980s to the Present: A Look Back at a Personal
Experience” (in French, with simultaneous translation) 

Break 11h15-11h30

11h30-13h00 Aram Andonian, Survivor, Witness, Archivist and Writer

Discussant | Judith Lyon-Caen EHESS
Mihran Minassian Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute | “The
Work of Collecting Testimonies of Armenian Genocide Survivors by
Aram Andonian in Aleppo (1916-1919)” (in Armenian, translated text
on screen)
Krikor Beledian INALCO | “L’écriture d’Aram Andonian à l’épreuve
du génocide”
Boris Adjemian AGBU Nubar Library, CRH (EHESS) | “Writer and
Witness: Aram Andonian in the Desert”

Lunch Break 13h00-14h30

14h30-16h00 Re-Reading Victims’ Narratives

Discussant | Caroline D. Laurent AUP
Eray Erkoca Binghampton University | “Canonizing the Armenian
Genocide through Eyewitness Accounts: Trauma, Historical
Knowledge, and Memory Politics”
Ayşe Parla Boston University | “In His Measured Steps: Hostage
Writing and Surviving Genocide in Hagop Minztouri’s Istanbul
Memories (1897-1940)”
Tatevik Galstyan American University of Armenia | “Unearthing
Narratives: Exploring Women’s Experiences and Reflections on the
Armenian Genocide Through Memoirs of Two Women Survivors”

16h-16h20: coffee break

16h20-17h50 Challenging Main Narratives

Discussant | Hamit Bozarslan EHESS
Mustafa Aksakal Georgetown University | “Revolution and the
Colonial State in the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkey”
Hilmar Kaiser Yerevan State University | “The Pitfalls of Governing
Narratives: The Armenian Genocide and Evolving Interpretations”
Alexandra Garbarini Williams College | “Beyond Comparison:
Rethinking Armenian and Jewish Early Twentieth Century
Experience of Mass Violence”

July 1

10h00-12h00 Perpetrating Genocide: Actors, Motives and Careers

Discussant | Florent Brayard CNRS
Ümit Kurt University of Newcastle | “Republic of Perpetrators: Talat
Pasha’s Genocide Technocraft Mustafa Resat Mimaroglu”
Mehmet Polatel Hrant Dink Foundation | “The Consequences of
Impunity: Personal Continuities from the Massacres of 1894-7 to
the Armenian Genocide”
Edita Gzoyan, Regina Galustyan & Elina Mirzoyan Armenian
Genocide Museum-Institute | “Women Perpetrators of the
Armenian Genocide”
Zeynep Ertuğrul Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne-CHS |
“Perpetrator Careers in Early Republican Turkey”

12h00-13h30 Lunch Break

13h30-15h00 (Un)Expressibility and (Un)Representability

Discussant | Ophir Lévy Université Paris 8
Thomas Richard Université Clermont-Auvergne | “La mémoire
filmée du génocide arménien : transnationalité, contraintes, et
recherche d’identité”
Vazken Davidian University of Oxford | “Images of Suffering and
Despair: Sarkis Katchadourian’s Armenian Genocide Paintings and
Their Circulation in 1920s Europe and Beyond”
Émilie Garrigou-Kempton Pasadena City College | “Remembering
the Unknown: How Family Stories Stand the Test of Time & History”

15h00-15h20 Coffee Break

15h20-16h50 To Collect & Remember: Stakes, Stakeholders & Cultural Practices

Discussant | Aurélia Kalisky Centre Marc Bloch/KHK Cure
Heghnar Zeitlian Watenpaugh UC Davis | “To Rescue and To
Collect: Armenian Cultural Heritage After the Genocide”
Vahé Tachjian Houshamadyan.org | “To Remember and Write:
When Restoring the Past Becomes the Meaning of Life”
Nathalie Moine CNRS | “Preserving the Voices of the Survivors of
the Armenian Genocide: The Collection of Testimonies Collected
by Verzhine Svazlian in Soviet Armenia, 1950s-1990s”

July 2

10h30-12h Forgotten Voices and Silenced Experiences

Discussant | Constance Pâris de Bollardière AUP
Anna Aleksanyan UCLA | “The Commodification of Women’s
Sexuality: Sexual Barter During the Armenian Genocide”
Hasmik Khalapyan American University of Armenia | “Resilience and
Reclamation: Ottoman Armenian Women’s Narratives of Atrocity
and Genocide”
Gayane Aghabalyan American University of Armenia | “The
Educational Objectives of the Near East Relief Orphanages in
Alexandropol and How They Changed After the Sovietization of
the Republic of Armenia”

12h-13h30 Lunch break

13h30-15h30 Post-Genocide Victim Erasure and Appropriation

Discussant | Hakan Seckinelgin LSE
Alice von Bieberstein Humboldt Universität | “Settler Colonialism,
Indigenous Dispossession and Racial Capitalism: The Case of the
Armenian Genocide”
Hakem Al-Rustom University of Michigan | “Denativization, Or, On
How We Study the Afterlives of the Armenian Genocide in Turkey”
Laurent Dissard Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour | “Heritage
Witnessing in Post-Genocidal Elazığ/Harput”
Emmanuel Szurek EHESS | “Learned Denial. French Turkology and
the Armenian Genocide (20th century)”

15h30-15h50 coffee break

15h50-16h30 Concluding remarks

Boris Adjemian AGBU Nubar Library, CRH (EHESS)
Claire Mouradian EHESS